Good morning,
We
all know that we are in a world full of lies and liars. It’s easy to
see all the lying that is going on in the political struggles for
control of countries and consumers. We find ourselves feeling angry and
suspicious when smiling people do their best to take advantage of us,
and angry and resentful when angry people try to bully us into
submission to their self centered plans. Sadly, we are often surprised
to find these sinful patterns controlling the people around us who call
themselves our Christian brothers and sisters. God’s real children
don’t act that way, do they? Well, do God’s children here on earth
still have human hearts? Jeremiah spoke for God when he said, “The
human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?”(Jer. 17:9) We know that to be true in
the world around us, but do we understand the importance of
understanding this truth when we relate to the heaven bound family
around us? Have we been taken in by sincere promises that when we give
our hearts to Jesus, our hearts become clean and holy and now sin has
lost it’s control over us.
It was a real shock for me when I
discovered that the people in my church and the people in my family and
the folks who had wonderful reputations for being leading Christians
around me were still struggling with sin and its nasty consequences.
Sometimes they did things to me and to the folks around me that the Lord
clearly identified as wrong for God’s kids to be doing. David
understood this and asked, “How can I know all the sins lurking in my
heart?” He didn’t, I don’t and you don’t either. I have been in God’s
family since I was eight years old, and I am still discovering the sins
that have been hidden there for all these years. I have to ask the Lord
to show me what sinful behaviors need dealing with now, and then ask
him to cleanse me from these now revealed sins. As David pointed out,
deliberate sins need to be identified and dealt with or God will hold me
responsible for deliberate rebellion. God will show us our hidden sins
at the right time and when we determine to deal with them with the
power supplied by the Holy Spirit, we will find that the words of our
mouths and the thoughts bubbling up from our hearts will please our Lord
and Savior. Dear Lord, please keep working on our hearts so that we
will draw others to our Rock and our Redeemer.
Psalm 19:12
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these
hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them
control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. 14
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to
you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
Roy Wisner
